Silent Shadow
by fatum
Summary: after bringing sasuke back, and still being treated like dirt, Naruto finally leaves the village with the promise that he one day will return
1. part 1

The darkness in the night was heavy and suffocating, most people had sought refuge from the suffocating night in their warm and comforting homes.

The streets lay silent and empty, and the only thing you could hear was the ruffle of the wind in the trees.

Nobody saw the silent shadow that practically flew through the village, never being at the same place more than a second, mingling with the shadows perfectly.

Not even the stationed guards at the gate noticed when the shadow flew past them, still not making a single sound or unwanted movement.

And before the guards could even turn around, the shadow had disappeared in the quiet forest that surrounded the village of Konoha.

And Uzumaki Naruto was finally free.

He never thought that this day would come, the day where he would run away from his beloved home, but he needed to get away. He hoped that he's friends wouldn't be too mad at him, but he knew that they would understand, he trusted them. And he also knew that this was not the last time he would see his home, he would be back one day, one day.

He never stopped running, he knew this forest as the back of his hand, so he let his thoughts wander over the last day's happenings.

_Flashback._

_Drip...drip...drip..._

_All I__ could hear was the dripping of my own blood, staining the road with the deep crimson red colour, but I just kept on smiling, smiling because I had finally kept my promise, I had finally managed to get Sasuke back home._

_And my__ smile just grew when I finally could see the gates a little ahead._

_It was hard to keep going, if not my own injuries wasn't bad enough, I also had to carry the unconscious Sasuke on my back._

_Finally I__ collapsed in front of the giant gates of Konoha, loosing Sasuke while I fell._

_I__ landed in a heap on the ground, while Sasuke landed nice and smooth on the ground thanks to that I tried to soften he's fall._

_A crow__d soon started to gather at the gates, both shinobi and civilians, among them I recognised Gai, Kurenai, Asuma, Kakashi and the rest of the konoha 12 in the middle of the crowd, trying to fight their way up to the front._

_Sakura was the first one to arrive, she sent a small smile to the barely conscious Naruto, but that was before she noticed Sasuke._

"_S__asuke-kun" she suddenly cried out before throwing herself on top of the unconscious Uchiha, she then stepped right up and walked over to where I was still laying on the ground and proceeded to slap me hard on the face, sending me flying a few meters, her hatred showing clearly in her eyes._

_At this point also Kakashi had managed to reach the front; he only gave me a look that only showed disgust, and then proceeded to pick his priced student of from the ground and started on his way to the hospital._

_Leaving his other student to the mercy of the villagers for hurting the last Uchiha._

_The last thing Naruto could see before slipping into unconsciousness was the villagers closing the distance between them fast with murder in their eyes, and his friend__'s (the remaining sensei's and konoha 12) struggle to reach him while people where holding them down._

_When I __woke up all I could see was white, so I guessed that they had brought me to the hospital, looking around I saw my friends lying on different chairs around the room, fast asleep._

_At my left side I saw a sleeping Sasuke lying in a white b__ed identical to my own, and Sakura was lying faithfully at his side._

_Sakura looked at me with hate in her eyes as I carefully sat up, she quickly closed the curtain that hung between the two beds._

_It was in that exact moment that I decided that I needed to get away for a little while; I waited in the hospital until Tsunade-no-obaa-chan said I could go._

_While I was in the hospital I heard stories about that my friends had__ saved me from the angry mob which tried to kill me, they where almost to late too because of some idiots that had tried to hold them down._

_Later that day I cleaned up my apartment, wrote a letter that explained everything and then just waited for the night._

_End flashback._

I could feel the tears gather in my eyes, trying to get out, but I wouldn't let them, I promised myself that I would not cry again.

My thoughts then wandered to the content of my backpack; there wasn't much, the forehead-protector I got from Iruka-sensei, the picture of my genin squad, and all the cards I had gotten from friends while I was in the hospital, those thing and the necklace I got from the old hag was the only things I couldn't bear leave behind.

While all these thoughts was running in his head, the silent shadow was moving further and further away from Konoha

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Hi, this is my first story, so I would really appreciate your opinion of it, please review. also pairing is not yet decided, i'm thinking naruhina, but not sure. give som tips about what you would like. no yaoi or yuri


	2. part 2

I would first thank all of my reviewers; it really means a lot to me.

I have also decided that this is not to be a naruhina, but either a naruten or a naruino, you may vote for your own favourite if you wish.

"_Thoughts"_

"Normal speech"

Currently at the border of fire country, the shadow has finally stopped. Ahead is a small peaceful village. The village was small, but pretty, it wasn't protected by a large wall, but it had instead a watchtower. A low stone fence surrounded the village, and on the outside of the fence, I grew wildflowers of all kinds and in all colours imaginable.

"_Hmm_", I was hiding in the shadows of a tree, considering if it was safe to go in and get equipment and some freaking new clothes.

"_Seriously, I can't believe that I actually wore this orange thing, it literally screams KILL ME, but then again, I did find it in a trashcan. Hmm, but since this is far away from Konoha, maybe they don't even know who I am, __especially not that I'm the jinchuuriki of Kyuubi, I might have a chance of actually get some nice clothes at a decent price here"_

With those last thoughts I jumped down from the tree and headed for the village. "_I could feel the watchman's eyes in my neck, but he let me pass, and didn't have fear in his eyes, only curiosity, that was a nice variation from the glares back in konoha" _I thought while I looked at the inside of the village.

**Meanwhile in Konoha**

In the outskirts of the village, at a ragged down apartment building a man with a brown pineapple hair-thing and a scar across his nose was knocking at a door. The man is Iruka, and the door he is knocking on is the former apartment of an Uzumaki Naruto. After not receiving an answer and since the door was locked, he got out the spare key he had gotten from the boy many years ago, inside he found the last thing he had ever expected to see….a clean apartment.

It wasn't that Naruto was a person that liked to live in the mess; he was just too lazy to ever clean it up.

Iruka went through every room in the apartment but found nothing, not food in the kitchen, not bathing things in the bathroom, not even garbage in the garbage can.

When he went into the last room in the apartment, he noticed two things, 1. The bed was made, 2. The letter that lay on the bed. The letter was put in a simple white envelope with the konoha mark in the corner, on the middle it also said with big elegant letters: "Hokage Sama".

Iruka left the apartment in a hurry, but not before noticing that also his genin picture was missing. He ran over the rooftops in a speed that could rival Lee, afraid of what they might find inside the letter he was clutching desperately in his hand.

In the hokage office you should normally find many busy people doing all the things that should be done to keep the village running, instead you would find a sleeping and drooling Tsunade on top of some probably important documents, that was at least how Iruka found her when he came barging in trough the window. Two seconds later you could also see a flying Iruka going trough the wall on the opposite side of the room….he did the grave mistake of waking up Tsunade without standing two meters away from her fists.

When she eventually managed to take a look inside the letter, her face grew white as snow, and immediately sent some ANBU out to find the Konoha 12, minus Sakura and Sasuke, and their sensei's, minus Kakashi.

Not less then ten minutes later they where all assembled in the hokage's office, all with a look of confusion showing clearly in their eyes.

Tsunade started the meeting by staring on them for about five minutes, and this off course just intimidated the poor people even more.

Suddenly she broke the silence and started to talk; when she did some people got a little startled, since they had grown accustomed to the silence. "Everyone, I bring grave news, and it was he's wish that all of you were informed of this" she said, not noticing the weird looks she was getting from most of the occupants in the room.

At this point some of the assembled people actually started to cold sweat a little, afraid for what Tsunade might say.

"I ask for that you do not interrupt me before I am finished reading" Tsunade continued while she pulled out a letter written on a simple white paper, also with the konoha mark in the corner.

**Dear ****Tsunade no baa-Chan.**

**It pleases me that you have received this letter, and I hope that you did not receive**** it to long after my departure.**

now even more people started to sweat"

**I ask that you bring my good friends Lee, Neji, Tenten, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Kurenai, Gai and Asuma when you read this letter since this also includes them. I would also appreciate that you inform Ayame and Teuchi from the ramen stand that I will not visit for a while.**

**Dear friends, if you have not yet understood this, I, Uzumaki Naruto, have left the village; do not worry because I will be back one day. I just really needed a vacation from this dreaded place.**

**I wish that all of you know that you guys are NOT the reason why I left, on the contrary, you guys are the main reason to that I stayed sane these past few years, before you came into my life I was on the verge of insanity.**

**So therefore I would take this opportunity to thank all of from the bottom of my heart, thank you.**

**And granny Tsunade, please do not look for me, and I would appreciate that you did not list me as a missing Nin, that would be a real pain in the ass.**

**Considering the reason I left, I guess it is time that my friends learned of my secret, so you have my permission to tell them, I just hope that they will not turn against me for it. I have now gone out in the world to seek true strength and also to seek for my family, I will stay in touch by letter and I will also be willing to take on assassination missions and such, but I will do them ****alone.**

**I would appreciate it if you looked after my payments until I come and claim them, and don't even try to loose the****m in gambling, because I will be keeping a record over my missions and my salary.**

**I will miss all of you, but the thought of that I will one day see you all again will keep me going.**

**All my love, Uzumaki Naruto.**

The feelings in the room at that moment was overwhelming, Hinata, Tenten and Ino had tears running down their cheeks, Chouji had stopped his hand midair and his chip had fallen to the ground, Lee and Gai was crying over the loss of youth, Kiba just stared at the ground and Shikamaru stared at the sky outside, almost searching for their lost friend, both Shino and Neji looked impassive, but you could see that they where both as tense as a violin bow, and Kurenai and Asuma just stared at their Hokage with big eyes.

Kiba was the first one to break the awkward silence that floated in the room.

"why?...why?" the first two sentences was nothing more than a whisper trough the room, until he exploded, no longer managing to keep his emotions intact. "WHY THE HELL DID HE LEAVE!!!!" in the same moment he yelled he fell to the floor, landing with he's knees first since he's own feet no longer had the power to hold him up.

After a deep sigh, Tsunade started on the dreaded history of the Kyuubi, the sealing and Naruto's dreaded childhood, she also told them about the 246 assassination attacks on his life.

When she finally was finished neither of the assembled could mutter at word, even the sensei's was speechless, they knew that it had been attempts on his life and that he had not had the best childhood, but none of them had in their wildest dreams thought that it was that bad.

It pleased Tsunade that Naruto had in the end collected a nice assembly of friends, since none showed hatred in their eyes, but understanding, compassion, friendship, sorrow and many others. They finally understood why their beloved friend was hated by many in their village, why he would never go to a restaurant with them or go shopping with them; the owners of the shops didn't let him in.

First they where sad, but then they got enraged. How dared those stupid villagers ever treat THEIR friend this way, could the villagers actually be that blind that they saw the Kyuubi instead of the poor little boy who only wanted to be recognised as a human being.

After they left the office they maltreated a training ground to dust, just to blow of their steam, all while they thought of poor Naruto, and then back at the villagers and just got more raged.

Soon the entire training ground existed no more, and the group of people started to look for another victim, it was just by pure luck that they didn't run into any villagers in their rampage. As for Sakura, she was not so lucky, since she ran into Hinata and Tenten on her way home, she was later admitted to the hospital, after what she said was a fall down the stairs. The doctors couldn't quite figure out how her tenketsu's got closed and how she managed to get kunai and shuriken wounds from falling down the stairs, but didn't really bother to think of it.

**Back at the village at the border of fire country.**

Naruto finally left the small village, with new clothes, new equipment and all he needed for his journey. He now wore black and baggy pants with pockets for weapons, a black tight t-shirt, a long (down to his hips) red jacket with a black Kyuubi on the back, the jacket wasn't as thick as his old jumpsuit had been, and wasn't as bulky either. It was slim and had many pockets for various scrolls. The collar and the wristband was also black, and the wristband hung loosely around he's wrists. He wore standard black shinobi sandals and a pair of black fingerless gloves with a metal plate on top. He had black bandages around the ankles and wrists; he had also removed his forehead protector from his forehead and instead now let it hang loosely around his neck, also had he exchanged the blue cloth to black instead.

He wasn't in the best of moods, considering he had walked around and sneezed all day long **(1)**, but soon he was on the move again, and didn't stop before he had put a pretty decent distance away from both fire country and Konoha. Moving wherever the land took him.

In Japan they believe that when someone is thinking of you, you'll sneeze.

This is almost the same, with a little rewrite, still not quite sure but bear with me. The next chapter is already in writing and I hope that it is better. Don't forget to vote on either naruten or naruino.


	3. part 3

**Thank you for all reviews, please continue, the more reviews, the more I get inspired to write faster. ****Also, if it is a special writing mistake that you see is repeating, please let me know, English is not my first language and I would very much like to improve on my English. And if you have any good ideas please share them with me :) **

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**Two year time jump.**

Tsunade was for the thousandth time wondering why on earth she ever took this job, the paperwork never ended, right when she was done with one pile, in came another one. She also wondered if anyone would be suspicious of her if all the paperwork suddenly disappeared in a mysterious fire.

While she was plotting her revenge against paperwork, she missed the fact that a golden eagle suddenly had placed itself in her window, looking at her with curious eyes. The bird was about 1 m in length and weighed about 5 – 6 kg, it had claws as long as adult human fingers, a black and very sharp looking beak. The bird was golden and dark brown, with some black and a few spots of white on its long majestic feathers.

Finally sick of being ignored by the brooding woman, and let out a loud piercing sound, that definitively got the woman's attention, since she almost immediately fell out of her chair in pure surprise. When she finally returned from the floor, she just stood and stared at the bird without blinking for a few minutes. The main reason as to why she stared at the bird was that she had noticed the letter that was attached to its leg and messenger birds was almost always a falcon, because of its great speed, and this bird was an eagle.

But not any eagle, it was a golden eagle, an extremely rare bird that was hard to find, and harder to tame.

When she finally managed to come out of her one-sided staring competition, she finally managed to think clearly enough to take the letter from the bird. At first she thought that taking the letter from the bird would be hard, since this type of bird was known for it's hostility against humans, but surprisingly enough the bird just put it's foot out, allowing Tsunade to tie of the letter.

Back in her own chair she opened the letter, still giving small glances to the large eagle that still hadn't left her window.

**Hey Tsunade no baa-chan P**

**Long time no see, eh? I guess your wondering about the golden eagle in your office, I'll explain that later in the letter.**

**First, I am doing fine, and I hope that you are doing the same.**

**Second, I would like you to send my entire salary collection back to me using the ****eagle; I am still going to explain the whole eagle thing.**

**As I stated in my first letter, I was also leaving to find my family, which I did, the sad thing was that my entire clan on my mother's side was wiped out in the last war. Only my grandfather was alive, and he's dead now, so I am the only living Uzumaki left alive. Before he died he taught me our family's traditions, jutsus, taijutsu, history and our own special kekkei genkai, plus our own little family trait. The kekkei genkai I'm going to explain the next time we meet, it's too risky to explain in a letter. When it comes to the family trait, he's sitting in your office, for many years the Uzumaki clan has had an alliance with the golden eagles, each child from five years old, would receive it's own eagle. I received mine from my grandfather when I found him, mine wasn't a baby when he came, like they normally are, but a child reaching his adolescence, he's name is Chigiri (1).**

**He is quite intelligent, we of the Uzumaki clan can communicate with the golden eagles inside our clan, but this is not our kekkei genkai though.**

**I also found my fathers name; this is also too dangerous to tell in this letter, it is dangerous information if some villain actually managed to get it from Chigiri.**

**I have been pretty much everywhere now, ero-sennin introduced me to a known swordsman awhile back, he thought me some moves with my parent's sword, you see, my sword is quite special. It was made by my parents, and is infused with their chakra, it was supposed to be my "welcome to the world" present, at least that's what grandfather told me.**

**I do not know if you have heard of me back home, but around in the world I have gained the nickname "silent shadow", I would appreciate you keeping my true identity a secret, a little discretion can't hurt.**

**Well, well, I'm trailing of, if I was supposed to tell you everything that's happened to me during these two years, the letter would be too heavy for poor Chigiri to carry.**

**Please send all my love to my dear friends, and tell them that I miss them dearly, if they or you wish to send me a letter, send them back with Chigiri and my money, he will stay with you until you send him back. Treat him well, I'll be waiting for him, and don't worry about him getting lost, he will find me wherever I go.**

**Uzumaki Naruto.**

"hmmmf" Tsunade couldn't do anything else but sigh in that moment, of course it had to be him that was "silent shadow" a shinobi that killed from the shadows so quickly that you didn't even realise he was there until it was too late. The only people that had gotten a glimpse of him all ended up dead.

The second thing she was worried about was he's money, she had managed to not loose all of it, but about half was gone, and now she had to hurry and collect the money again. "How troublesome".

**Time skip: 5 hours.**

Tsunade, with the entire konoha 12 and their sensei's behind her (except Sakura and Kakashi), Sasuke was actually there; together they watched as the eagle she had just given permission to leave fly elegantly through the air. When she told them about Naruto's letter everyone strictly told her that she was not allowed to send off the bird before they had gotten to write a letter, and it was because of that, that the poor bird was now carrying 14 letters (courtesy of Lee, Neji, Tenten, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai and Sasuke) and a bag of money, money that Tsunade had hurriedly scrambled together in the few hours since the letter came.

Especially Sasuke watched the retracting bird, he so much wanted too apologise to his lost brother.

_Flashback:_

"_uugh", I opened my eyes and saw white, white and more white, after a few seconds I realised that I was in the hospital, and crap, I was still in Konoha. "That baka must have succeeded in bringing me back". After five minutes of brooding over the fact that I was back, something hit me, and it hit me big and hard._

_I was becoming my worst nightmare, I was becoming Itachi. I had attempted to kill my own best friend for power, for the Mangekyou sharingan, that was the exact thing my brother had done, and he too had sought power in the wrong direction (the Uchiha massacre for those who didn't get that). In that second, my entire vision over life changed, I finally saw how wrong I had been, and from that moment I had a new dream, a dream I wanted to accomplish together and side by side with my new brother._

_I was going too surpass my brother with the help of him__ (naruto), and I was going to grow as strong as him (naruto), so that I too could protect my precious people. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice someone trying to get my attention from my side. When I eventually noticed, I felt for screaming for my life. Not less than 1,5 m away from me, was my other worst nightmare, in all her pink stalking horrifying insanity sat none other than the undefeated horror queen Haruno Sakura herself._

_End flashback._

Sasuke still had nightmares about her, she had told him that she had fallen down the stairs, later he had found out that she accidentally had met Hinata and Tenten on her way home, he had later sent both of them a bouquet of flowers and a "job well done" card. After he had found out what that crazy bitch had done to Naruto, he hated her just as much as the rest did. He just had a slightly bigger problem then what the rest had……she wouldn't leave him the fucking alone, every second of the freaking day she would be there. Even Tsunade had felt so sorry for him so that he would be let go with a very mild punishment, as she said herself, "Sakura is a punishment that no person should ever have to experience". Later he had received help from his newfound friends in the art of avoiding Sakura, and they helped him in creating escape routs and hiding spots. But the fact that he had almost killed his most precious person, had never left he's heart, and he hoped that this letter might give him some soul peace.

Chigiri might not have known it, but he carried a small hope of forgiveness under he's strong majestic wings.

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**1. **Chigiri is Japanese and means "sky" 

so far the votes are heading for a naruten, but there is still time to vote for your favourite, so don't forget to vote on either naruten or naruino


	4. part 4

I'm so sorry for taking so long, but i've been working a lot lately, and there has just not been any time for writing, barely time sleeping, now I know how Gaara feels.

1. I have decided the pairing to be naruten, and because of that I need you to answer yet another question, should they get married or just stay sweethearts, it won't affect my course of action, but I think that it is an important detail.

2. sorry if there is many writing mistakes, but since my beta reader has gone on a vacation, you guys are the first people to read this chapter. I could always wait for her to come home, but that may take a couple of weeks, and I can't wait that long.

thank you for your attention.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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It was a dark and cloudy day in the hidden village of Konoha, it was always like that on that special day, it was never rain and never sun. Always dark and cloudy, like the village or the gods themselves where in mourning. But then again, this was no ordinary day, today was the fifth anniversary of the day Konoha's misunderstood hero left the village in grief. 

Ever since he left, the village had slowly lost some of its shine, like a light bulb that slowly grew weaker and in the end would darken completely.

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The Konoha 12 (minus Sakura) had on this day started a tradition, a tradition that would never end before the sun again shone on this day. Every year they would meet up at Ichiraku's ramen stand, and have a small "Naruto party" in his honour, they would eat ramen till they could eat no more, and they would share their stories with each other, stories that they knew their blond haired friend would have been proud of hearing, because that meant that someone remembered. It was a party in his honour, where they would respect his only true wish in life, to be recognised as the person and great fighter that he was. So they continued this tradition every year, no exceptions, telling the same stories every year, but never growing tired of hearing them. 

Even Tsunade helped in on their little gathering, she always made sure of that none of them ever had any missions on that fateful day, she even threw in a little bonus and always made sure that the little pink haired banshee was miles away on a mission on that day, so that she could never ruin their fun.

This way the flaming memory of the orange clad never died, and was kept just as alive as the sun on the sky and the thousand stars in the night, and it would continue to burn, until the day he came home, and blew more life to the already storming inferno of memories that he had left behind.

Today was of course no exception from any of the other days, and promptly at noon they where all seated in the small ramen stand, that could fill surprisingly many people, and started their yearly little ritual, always starting by ordering a steaming bowl of hot miso ramen, just because it had been Naruto's favourite.

**Currently a little down the road in front of the gates to Konoha.**

A figure was slowly making it's way up the road and back to the village of his nightmares, but also the village where his lifelines where placed, what he would have done without them he did not know.

When he came into seeing view from the gates, the two chunins at guard-duty (Izumo and Kotetsu) could see a tall figure wearing a deep crimson coloured jacket with black trimming and a big hood pulled over his head (think Tsunade's jacket with a hood, only red with thick black trimmings against all the edges at the bottom, wrists, collar and hood. Plus the arms are longer), black and baggy pants and standard black shinobi sandals. By his left side they could clearly see a sword behind the jacket that was caught in the wind and was dancing around his feet. They could also barely see a katana at his right side. But the most breathtaking about the guy was the brown and black majestic eagle that was seated at the person's right shoulder, piercing its sharp eyes at the dark and gloomy village ahead.

The two guards stared suspiciously at the stranger as he slowly made his way up to the gate, the tension in the air growing stronger by the second, normally these people where just harmless travellers, but something about this man made the chunins very on edge. Like as an aura of strength and wariness surrounded the cloaked figure, making them believe that this was no ordinary traveller, the person's presence literally screamed danger, and that gave them chills down their spine.

After what seemed like an eternity the stranger eventually reached the gate, and was then stopped by two suspicious looking chunins, one of them stepped forward and tried to stare the stranger in the eyes before saying in a cold voice "state your name and business in Konoha".

The stranger just slowly lifted his head, and before they could register almost any movement, the eagle gave off an ear-splitting scream that seemed to pierce straight through them, like the eagle was inside them screaming, and not in front of them. The stranger just lifted his arm and lovingly stroked the bird gently over the wings while making soft soothing sounds, the eagle calmed down but kept his sharp piercing eyes at the two, like he was looking straight into their souls. As the stranger once again hid his arm in his jacket they could clearly see that this was no spoiled brat, his hand was aged by wind, sun and hard work, and they could also see some minor scares on the stranger's hand. Still miles away in their own thoughts they had not noticed that the stranger was now looking straight at them, and when they finally noticed all they could see was a dark hole where his face was still hidden under the hood.

**Back at Ichiraku.**

"and do you remember that time when he put up that complicated trap in the classroom and it ended up with Iruka-sensei being covered in pudding with a note saying I just love pudding?" the assembly of people laughed hard at that particular memory, Iruka had been mad for two weeks after that. Then Kiba spoke up and said, "And let's not forget the time when he snuck in to the hokage tower and coloured ALL of the hokage robes bright pink and the hat orange. Right then I really thought that Sandaime sama would have killed him", "yeah, I remember seeing the Sandaime chasing Naruto through the streets in something pink that day, he looked mad as hell while Naruto just laughed and kept on running" Ino said.

"Or that time when he and Kiba was arguing, and he just suddenly threw a frisbee and yelled 'catch', and it hit that Anko chick, you could hear him run for his life the entire day, I swear he must have ran past my house a least three times that day with her right behind" Sasuke managed to choke out between the laughs, that gave them all a very good laugh, but it soon died down when Shikamaru said something.

"But even though he did all of those things, he always protected his precious people. Hell he has even saved our village twice from destruction, first from the Kyuubi, and then from Gaara when he got taken over by Shukaku" Shikamaru said while staring into his clear glass of water. In that moment the same thought floated in everyone's mind, "he truly was the hero and sunshine of this village".

**Back to the gates ag****ain.**

The two chunins was pushed out of their startled gaze as the stranger spoke too them with a voice that seemed hoarse from lack of use, but his voice also signalled wisdom and wariness, "my name is of none of your concern, neither is my business here, but I'm expected by your hokage, so you better let me in" he said while holding up a declaration signed by lady Tsunade herself, stating that he was allowed entry in every village in fire country.

The two chunins studied the paper for a few seconds before dividing in two directions and gave the stranger access to the village. The stranger slowly walked between them and continued to give of the aura that clearly stated that he did not trust the two men one bit and was on edge as well.

As the stranger walked into the village he could feel the men's glares on the back of his head, but shrugged it of as nothing, they couldn't hurt him now anyway.

As the guards watched the retreating back they gave a sigh of relief as the pressing tension that had been resting in the air was finally gone and their muscles once again started to relax, when they saw the retreating form they noticed one detail about the strangers clothing that they had not seen from the front. Gently wrapped over the back of his jacket, with its wings on the shoulders and the head placed right on the middle with the head turned up to the right with its beak open in a silent scream, was the majestic re-creation of a black eagle.

Naruto's POV:

"_Hmm I guess I should be getting to see Obaa-Chan, hope she doesn't either send me flying through the wall or break my ribs in a hug, wouldn't be the first time. Perhaps I should send in a kage bunshin first?" _That was the things going trough Naruto's head while he slowly was walking down one of the many streets in Konoha. "_This old place hasn't changed one bit, the only change I can see is that Obaa-Chan is now hanging from the hokage monument, I wonder how my apartment is doing? Heeey……isn't that Ichiraku's? hmmm; I am a little hungry..."_

Back too 3rd POV:

Just as Naruto stopped and looked at the restaurant where he had spent mostly of his lonely childhood, 10 people stepped out, all was laughing, but they still gave of an aura of melancholy. The very moment they all stepped out in the street, the air got suffocating and tension filled their muscles, all of them looked up and saw a stranger in a red jacket with a bird on his shoulder standing across the street looking at them, none of them moved, like time itself had frozen in that very moment.

Suddenly a powerful breeze soared through the air, and promptly knocked down the hood that belonged to the stranger.

The tension in the air suddenly became much more suffocating, as what they saw in front of them finally sunk in. What they saw looking at them was a tanned face with no baby fat, a pair of deep sky blue eye with slits and a three pairs of whisker marks that was slightly but hardly noticeable thicker. And shoulder length bright blond hair that danced around the tanned and well shaped head. He was looking nothing like the last time they had met, but this still was a face that they could never forget; it was the face of the person that had haunted their dreams the last five years.

Neji was the first that got his voice under control again, and managed to utter a word with a low whispery voice that screamed uncertainty, "n.n.naruto?"

And for the first time in five years, on that fateful day, the sun peeked out from the clouds, and once again flooded the hidden village hidden in the leaves with its yellow and warm light.¨

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don't forget to vote on marriage or not, and tell me what you think, this is extremely important to me as you are my first readers since I don't have my beta reader 


	5. part 5

First, sorry for taking so long, but my computer completely fucked up after my niese spilled soda on it, the letter "c" didn't work and many other things, and after a while I got a great idea, I have a second and much older computer, it's slow, but it works, and here you are, the fifth chapter. don't know why I didn't think of it earlier.

Second, the next chapter won't take as long, since almost the entire chapter is in my head, and don't forget to vote on if you want tenten and naruto to marry or not. it isn't really important, but still.

enjoy :)

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It was like time itself had stopped and the world was holding in it's lifegiving breath, just observing the group of people and the single man standing on one of the many streets og Konohagure no sato. People where walking past them, but none saw them, many people where talking, but none heard them, all that existed was them, and them only.

Then, all of a sudden the world came rushing back and with a single scream from the majestic bird, Naruto was gone with the wind that was playing around them, and the only evidence that he was ever there, was 10 people staring at a spot accross the street with big eyes.

A couple of streets away, a man was sitting on a rooftop, hiding in the comforting shadows of the day. The man was looking down on the roof, looking like he didn't believe the things he saw, and was panting so hard it seemed like he had run several miles. Even the bird resting safely on his shoulder looked down on his master with eyes of worry and slight discomfort.

As like he noticed the look he recieved from his companion he started stroking the bird over it's long and soft brown\black feathers, "it's ok Chigiri, i'm okay, just got a little startled thats all. I really didn't expect too meet them this suddenly".

Naruto started too look up at the sky with eyes so deep and blue as the purest of oceans, the skyes above kept floating as the problems on earth did not exist, and the only thing was itself (the skyes), the blue sky and the gentle breese playing in a forever going dance. Naruto had for many years ago adopted Shikamaru's habit of skygazing, although he prefered the nightsky with it's endless beeing and protecting light, it soothed him and helped him think clearly, like a guiding parent that never left and was always there to protect him from his own head.

After a few minutes he got back to his feet and started on the way to the big and red hokage building that was located in the middle of the village, he consiously took the road over the rooftops so that he could avoid stumbling over more of his old friends and aquaintenses.

He didn't stop before he reached the window that led into the hokage office, and he had to chuckle mildly to himself as he saw the state Tsunade was in . "_hehe, just like I left her"_

Tsunade was lying face down on her desk, drooling at the papers beneath her, with a big and empty bottle of Sake lying halfway in her hand that was dangling by her side, while she was snooring loudly and ruining important paperwork with her drool, Naruto quietly sneaked in to the office through the open window by her side.

While he went and sat himself in the empty chair infront of her desk, he was plotting on the best method of waking her up, he couldn't decide on using a water jutsu or throwing her out of the window. He eventually decided on making Chigiri scream into her ear, but gave him a direct order of moving away extremely fast, since Tsunade wasn't just extremely fast, but also could give one heck of a punch.

Just to watch the scene take place totally was worth the risk, not only did it wake Tsunade up, but in the process she managed to break her desk in two, send half of her paperwork out the open window and position herself in and extremely flexible position on the floor with a look of utter confusion on her genjustu covered face. It took every bit of Naruto's selfcontroll to not fall down on the floor himself and laugh til the sun fell down, instead he just sat there in the chair and grinned like an idiot and memorising everything in the room for later blackmailing and laughing-my-ass-off moments.

After Tsunade eventually got up from the floor, she only stood there and looked weirdly at the grinning blonde infront of her, considering she just recovered from a rather brutal wake up call she wasn't quite there yet, so she of course didn't recognise the idiot infront of her. But then suddenly something in her mind clicked, THE BIRD.

She stared dumbfoundly at the large bird that rested peacefully on Naruto's shoulder, "_isn't that the bird that Naruto uses for his letters?"_ Tsunade thought quietly to herself while she looked from the golden eagle and the stranger, back and forth, back and forth. She just stood there and did that for five minutes, Naruto just sat there and stared at the obviously confused woman, "_I didn't think she hit her head that hard? Or has that sake she keeps drinking finally killed of the last of her braincelles? Maybe.."_ Naruto's internal rambling came to a sudden hault as Tsunade suddenly made a movement and pointed her index finger at him and started yelling..."YOU"..."_ok? well well, now I atleast knows that not ALL of her braincelles are gone, she managed to point a finger and call me ´you"_ that was Naruto's thoughts while he supported a major sweatdrop as Tsunade continued to point at him with her finger.

In the end it appeares that Tsunade's brain finally managed to put the two pieces together, and a lightbulb appeared on top of her head (litterally), and as her new information sunk in, her eyes became as round and shocked as Konoha 12's had been, and she finally managed to utter something else then ´you, "n-n-n-n-n-n-n-naruto?"

Naruto on the other hand just raised his hand, made the peace signal and responded with a simple "yo".

This respons didn't take nearly so long as the first ones, in a matter of seconds naruto found himself with a sulking Tsunade around his neck, then of course, not long after that he also found himself stuck halfway trough the oposite wall with a very confused secretary on one side and a fuming hokage on the other.

He was just about to escape and come back later when he suddenly got sucked back into the office and came face to face with a woman that looked she was beeing torned between the urge to hit him again or to hug him until his ribs broke, she eventually decided on the hug, she managed to avoid breaking his ribs thanks to a chakra-shield that Naruto managed to put up in the last minute, but she did manage to squise all air out of his lungs.

After the bonebreaking hug, Tsunade decided that enough was enough and promptly put Naruto down in the spare chair and placed herself in the new hokage chair that some chunins had brought in while she pounded Naruto into the wall, "_wow, I guess she does that a lot since they didn't even asked what happened"_ Naruto thought while he made a mental note to never mess with Tsunade's temper, unnless he had an escape rout nearby of course.

"well" Tsunade said after she finally grew out of patience, wich lasted for about five seconds I may add, "care to explain where you have been, what you've been doing and why you suddenly come jumping into my office and make me break my third desk and chair this week?" (it was Tuesday) "well..." Naruto started saying with a thoughtfull look on his face, "I've been practically everywhere, I have been training and collecting information and I came back because I began to think I had been gone too long. And for the breaking your desk part...it was just a golden opportunity" the last part was said with the same stupid grin that Tsunade had seen when the dust had cleared, but now he was also scratching the back of his head while he chuckled quietly to himself.

"fine, but I want a more detailed raport later, after all, youre trip was labelled as a training mission so that you wouldn't get labelled as a missing nin, and therefore I will need a raport of it" Tsunade said with a firm look on her face, Naruto just nodded in approval. "And the there is the matter of your rank of course, since you never took the chunin exams you are still a genin in rank, normally I would make you go through a test to estimate your abilities, but considering the raports I have been receiving from Jiraya while you have been gone and your reputation, I'll just label you as a chunin. I'm sure youre easily jounin level or higher, but i'm gonna make you take that exam on your own and prove your worthy of the title of jounin" Tsunade continued still with a firm look on her face, and Naruto just continued to nodd in approval, although he had a more thoughtful look on his face now, thinking of the possibly more challenging challenges he could recieve at the jounin exams.

"Naruto..." Tsunade started, now with a lot more gentle look on her face "as you stated in your letter, you have found out who your father is, and since you sent me that piece of information by sending that pervertet old sensei of yours, I have checked a little around and found something that I think may please you, hidden in one of the many old scrolls in the hokage library...I found your father's last will and testament" all this information came running out of her mouth while she was looking frantically inside one of her drawers after something, and finally pulled out a old looking scroll with some sort of seal on it. She handed Naruto the old scroll while she started explaining the seal, but got abrupted by Naruto who seemed to be talking to himself, "hmm, this is a blood seal, that means he was trying to keep it away from the council, but probably also in an attempt to keep my identity a secret from people who mean trouble". To say that Tsunade was impressed was a little of an understatement, the fact that HER little brat had managed to figure out that on his own and that he actually knew what kind of seal it was would be quite an improvement from the old him, the old him would probably just have tried to break it open and get angry and grumpy when he did not suceed.

"I will read the content of his last letter later" Naruto said while he put the scroll in an protected pocket inside the jacket "but if it was nothing more you wanted, I would like to go and rediscover my home, it is already late and I still have many things to do today" Naruto continued while he got up from his chair and started to walk closer to the window he had entered from. "Oh, and one more thing, if the old pack comes looking for me, tell them i'm at the place where all heroes of Konoha rest" and with that he jumped lightly out of the window and dissapeared into the village, leaving behind a hole in a wall and a very confused hokage.

And as if on que, a few minutes after the departure through the window, the other ten members of the Konoha 12 and their respective senseis came bursting through Tsunades door, all of them looked panicked and practically demanded the hokage to tell them where Naruto was, they had tracked his scent there after they had returned to the world of the living and got their sense of logic back, the reason as to why the senseis was with them was because they had gotten a little worried when they saw their old students stand and gape at a point on the other side of the street with big eyes. They where the ones that got everyone back to their senses, and after finding out what they had been gaping at they had demanded to join their search-party.

After making another hole in the wall with Kiba for trying to shake her by the shoulders in pure despair after information, she calmly told them what Naruto had said, "he told me to tell you that he would be waiting at the place where all of Konoha's heroes rests, thats all he said, sorry". The group was a little dissapointed over the fact that he left them a riddle instead of telling them where he was, didn't he want to meet them? Or did he want to test how much their skills had grown?

**At training ground nr. 7**

The old training ground was quiet, the place was very little used anymore, the place had become more of a memorial to the hardships of team seven, and many stopped using it in fear or corrupting the memory of the important things that happened there. Friendships where made, love got crushed, some was ignored and one trained himself to greatness, with nothing but determination and drive.

To many this was a sacred place, and should remain in this state until the one day that team seven once again was a team of friendship, hope and future.

In the shadows of a big old tree you could see a figure, quietly keeping a lookout in case someone decided to drop by.

"_I wonder if they will understand my riddle, i'm sure they will, and the time that they will use to accomplish that will give me more than enough time to inspect my fathers last will"_ Naruto thought while he looked with gentle eyes at the old memorial stone that stood on the outskirts of the training grounds, the old stone that was ingraved with the names of every shinobi that had lost their lives while protecting their home from harm.


	6. part 6

Silent Shadow...Chapter 6……… 

Mild SPOILER WARNING on this chapter, this is because according to the latest chapter of the manga, this truly is what Naruto's mom is named and where she is from, and it is also the true name of the yondaime hokage. Sorry if this causes trouble for regular readers of my story and faithful anime watchers, but it just feels right to use their correct names.

I reposted it after I did a grammar test, sorry for all the wrong grammar

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The old training ground of team 7 lies quiet in the day, hiding in the shadows of the forest, some animals run through the grass and a few birds flies through, but except from that, the area is deserted, or at least, it looks like that for the untrained eye. For the trained eye, you can barely see a person hiding in the shadow of an old tree on the outskirts of the area. The branch is hidden, but shows the entire area, the perfect surveillance spot.

Naruto slowly started to open the old scroll he had lying in his hands, the paper was thick and seemed little aged by time, the scroll itself seemed to be made out of papyrus, like in the ancient Egypt, but it was thicker than any papyrus scroll he had ever seen.

Once the scroll was opened, Naruto could clearly see a short message and two blood seals at the bottom. The message was written in an elegant handwriting, but was clearly written in haste, like there was no time to do a proper job.

"_My dearest son, Naruto. If you are reading this, then I suppose that you have come of age or the old man has deemed you mature enough to receive this, or for all I know you might have stolen it. But that does not matter now, on the bottom of this scroll there are two blood seals that only your blood can unlock, one contains a letter from your dear mother and the other one contains my own letter"_

The letter ended there, saying nothing more, all that was left now was the two letters from his parents, it was with a slight feeling of fear and anticipation that Naruto smeared his blood over the first seal, and a scroll popped in its place. The handwriting on this scroll was different then the first one, so Naruto guessed that the thing he had in his hands, was the only thing he would ever receive from his mother, a farewell letter.

"_My beloved son or daughter. I write this letter before your birth because I have a bad feeling that I will not be able to see you grow strong and beautiful \ handsome. I hope to god every day that I am wrong, but I can not deny the fact that the feeling only grows stronger every day. I write you this letter in the hope of that you will never receive it. I am your mother, Uzumaki Kushina of the formerly whirlwind country; I have named you Naruto so that you can always carry the legacy of our history with you. I have left you some scrolls in the seal at the bottom, they will help you understand the fate of our country and also guide you in the ways of the proud Uzumaki clan. _

_Every day I can feel you getting stronger in my belly, and it saddens me to no end that I will never see you grow up and comfort you when you are sad, but I do not wish for you to mourn over me. The body of man may disappear, but the souls never leave. Always remember that the stars are souls in heaven that are watching over their loved ones, I will always watch over you my beloved child, in your heart you will never be alone, I will always be there for you._

_Never forget my beloved child, that the best and most beautiful things in this world must be felt with your heart, always trust your heart my little one, always trust your heart._

_Uzumaki Kushina."_

Naruto clutched the letter into his chest with tears forming in his eyes, his mother had known of her death days before it had happened, and had taken the time to make sure that her son always would know how much she loved him in case she would never be able to tell it to him herself. His mother had said that she would never leave him and would always watch over him from the stars, and he believed her, she wouldn't lie.

Naruto carefully rolled the scroll together again and placed his precious letter back into the seal, where it would not be harmed, and mentally prepared himself to read the letter from his father, after all, what words would a father leave his only son when he knew of the fate he was commending him to.

With a smear of blood and a poof later, Naruto again found himself with a scroll lying in his lap, with shaking hands he started unrolling the scroll, and once again the writing from the original scroll appeared line after line as he continued to open the scroll. The writing was slightly different thou, it seemed that he had taken himself more time to write this letter then he had done with the first note, "_maybe he was unsure of what to put into this last letter of his" _Naruto thought while he slowly started to read.

" My dear son Naruto, first of all I am sorry for putting this burden on you at such an early age, but I hope that you one day will understand why I did it, and that you too one day will live with the same desire to protect your home. A pain in my heart strikes when I see you lying so calm and innocent here in my arms, completely unaware of the fate you have in front of you, I wish for my people so see you as the hero that you are, but it is with a grave heart that I come to the realisation that my last wish probably will be left unfulfilled.

_I __make me glad to see that you have my hair and my eyes; I hope to see you grow up like your father, and always fight for what you believe in and for the things that are truly important. I may not be there for you in body, but my spirit will always be with you, and I'm sure your mother said the same, we will always be with you in your heart, you must remember that you are never truly alone. I know it in my heart that you will grow strong and always protect the world against the evil that I am going to seal away into your belly._

_Be strong my son, and never let anyone tell you that you are someone else then Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto, the proud son of your even prouder father._

_Live free and proud my son, I will always love you, your father Namikaze Minato – yondaime hokage."_

"_The last will and testament of Namikaze Minato._

I leave all my possessions to my son Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto, the keys to my home and a map is in the seal at the bottom, all the items that I have left behind will now be his. Including scrolls at the hokage tower, my money and all my owned land.

Signed: Namikaze Minato, Yondaime hokage."

Naruto quietly rolled the scroll back together and resealed it before he leaned his tired body against the tree he was residing in, feeling mentally exhausted. Not only had he received the last words from his parents, but he had also discovered that somewhere in Konoha, he had a home he could call his. Slowly he closed his eyes in an attempt to process all of the new information he had received. While he sat there, a lonesome tear found it's way down his cheek, and he knew that his parents was there, standing beside him and comforting him in their silent way.

Meanwhile 

Meanwhile, in one of the many streets of Konoha. A gang of 13 people are running around as a bunch of frantic maniacs, running over fruit carts and slipping on mud. All while they try their best to look as cool as possible, because they are ninjas, and ninjas are supposed to look cool at all times. Although it seemed a little problematic to look cool while you slip on a banana peel and go straight into a big pool of mud.

It had taken it's time, but in the end something had clicked in Sasuke's brain, hadn't Kakashi said something about a memorial stone for all of the shinobi of Konoha that had died for Konoha? "The place where all heroes of Konoha lie", at first they had thought that he was at the cemetery, but that would have been too obvious. And the memorial stone had been on the outskirts of their old training grounds, of course Naruto would have gone there. Sasuke had told the others of his idea, and they had concluded that it was the most logical choose of action. And it was at that point that they started running around like a bunch of frantic maniacs.

After five minutes they where all present at the old training ground number seven, they all looked like they had been running for a couple of hours, and they where panting hard. The training ground seemed as abandoned and haunted as it had been for the last two years, the wind was blowing through the trees and the grass was dancing slowly with it, moving slowly and following the winds every move with its long and elegant being. At first sight it seemed as nothing was there except for the playing wind, but when they looked around they noticed something weird, it seemed as the wind was very concentrated at point by a big tree by the forest line, almost like that was the point where the wind had originated. When they moved closer they was met with a sight that none of them had ever thought that they would see. On a thick branch sat Naruto, with the wind dancing softly around him, making his normally spiky hair seem soft, his eyes was cloudy and was staring ghostly at the lonesome memorial stone that stood alone not far away. It was like his body was there, but his soul was flying with the wind that was dancing softly in the mighty trees and in the soft grass on the ground.

All in all, it was a sight for the gods and like heaven itself had come down to earth.

A broken twig, courtesy of Akamaru, broke the trance and the wind died down immediately, Naruto's eyes got back their piercing look and slowly he turned his head and looked down on them from the branch he was sitting on.

Only two words where uttered in a hushed voice into the deadly silence that was slowly filling the area, "found you".


	7. part 7

The forest of Konoha is always full of life, animals running freely, birds playing in the fresh air, all sorts of young animals running around, playing and feeling the freedom with every fibre of their body. Yes, the forest was full of life, sound and movement.

Except for a small clearing that stood alone, surrounded by the mighty forest, in that clearing, silence ruled. A tension so thick that you could cut it with a knife and not even the birds dared fly in. The only movement was the slowly breathing chests of the 14 people that stood there, looking like breathing corpses.

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The deadly silence was broken when Naruto, who was still securely seated on the strong tree branch, started clapping, like he was giving them an applause, "congratulations in finding me, you did well" Naruto said in a calm voice as he stopped clapping and jumped down from the security of his high branch.

He slowly made his way to them and stopped when he stood about two meters from them, the larger group slowly walked around him so that they in the end created a circle around their prey. As Naruto looked at the circle with one eyebrow raised, Shikamaru took the liberty of answering the un-asked question, "just a precaution in case you decide to run off on us again" he said with a slight smirk imprinted on his lazy yet lively face, his features might have been as calm as always, but his eyes told a different story. As Naruto seemed content with the answer, they just stood like that, looking at each other, taking in the major changes that had happened during their time apart. (The rest of the gang looks like they did after the time skip).

The silence once again fell down upon them, none of them moved and none of them spoke a word, after all, what did you say to a friend that disappeared and reappeared five years later, and the only contact that had been made was perhaps one small letter once a year. The same went for Naruto, what did he say to the friends he left behind, the friends that had been waiting in five years just to see him again, the same friends that in that exact moment was placed in a tight circle around him.

Sasuke was the first person to break the tension between the group and walked forward over the thick and wild grass until he stood face to face with his old team-mate and closest friend, he stood there and looked into the deep sky blue eyes that looked just as deep as the oceans in water country, the eyes that belonged to Uzumaki Naruto. The same eyes looked into the dark onyx eyes of Uchiha Sasuke, his eyes seemed hard and unbreakable, but when he looked really closely he could see that the hardness was slowly going away, just like ice under the sun.

Suddenly Sasuke slowly reached out his hand towards Naruto and said with a soft voice, "welcome home Naruto, it's good to have you back", and a small smile adored the Uchiha's features when he received another hand firmly placed in his own and heard a small reply that meant more than a thousand good words he had gotten over the years, "it's good to be home".

The rest soon followed suit, hugging him and welcoming him home once again.

They settled down under the shade of the tree Naruto had been sitting in; they exchanged stories and just sat there, enjoying each others company. Naruto found out that Shikamaru was now dating Temari, who was the sauna ambassador in Konoha, and that he was the second in command of the strategy department under his father, Ino and Chouji was now also going out and those three (Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji) had practically throw their fathers out of their thrones and had taken over as the new Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Kiba had trained hard and had become one of the best trackers in the entire village together with Akamaru, and was also now dating Hinata who had recently been officially named the heiress of the Hyuuga clan. Neji was secretly with Hinata researching on a way to remove the caged bird seal, so that on the day when she was the new head of the family she could completely remove the seal and make sure that it was never used again. Shino was training under his own father to become the next clan head of the Aburame clan and Tenten had opened up her own weapons shop. Lee was still training like a madman together with Gai and had actually beaten Neji on a few occasions, and Sasuke was working on gaining back the respect and friendships that he had lost, with much help he had managed to get over the Uchiha massacre and was rebuilding the Uchiha compound. Later he even told Naruto that he had begun to see this girl from the village.

"What about Sakura?" Naruto asked after realising that none of them was going to mention her and he himself was getting tired of waiting, the soft look that had been in everyone's eyes turned to stone immediately and nobody wanted to face him anymore. It was obvious that nobody really wanted to talk about her and had avoided her for some time now, but Naruto was persistent and he wasn't going to back down from his question, "I said, what about Sakura" he said with a slightly more hardened voice, Kiba eventually spoke up and answered his question. "After you left, she almost got a hero status in the village for punching you when you got back with Sasuke; she also got known as the one who saved the last Uchiha from the demons grasps. Tsunade stopped training her, although it didn't take that long to find another teacher. Her popularity has steadily gotten lower since you left though, we guess it's because they finally realised how grey the village was without you and started blaming her for the fact that you left. She still hasn't given up on Sasuke here" he said while nodding his head towards Sasuke "but we have managed to keep her away this long and we even turned your old apartment into a hiding spot for all of us" at that Naruto gave him an odd look, confusion clear in his eyes, Neji answered Naruto's unasked question by simply saying "we guessed that was the last place she would ever look" in his normal attitude, but Naruto could still hear the humour that was lying underneath.

"So I guess she's not changed her opinion of me then?" Naruto said in the end, a small amount of sorrow could barely be heard in his voice, "no, but who cares about that banshee. On the good side, you got mostly of the village behind you now, and I'm sure they will be thrilled over the fact that you're back" Ino said with a warm smile. "Then...what happened to Kakashi?" most of the people present noticed the lack of the word sensei behind his name, but didn't think too hard of it, but a few stored it away for later research. A big "humph" came from the three senseis present; Naruto had actually forgotten that they where there so he got a little surprised by the sudden sound of disapproval for the person at stake (Kakashi). "that scumbag got exactly what he deserved" Kurenai started, "he's a disgrace to all teachers and shinobi" Asuma continued, " HIS YOUTHFUL FLAMES HAS BURNED OUT" ended Gai with tears in his eyes, the group almost didn't even react to the man's sudden outburst, obviously very used to it. Since Gai was in no condition to continue in his crying fit, Kurenai started again, "after you left he got punished by Tsunade-sama and was sentenced to a month of D-rank missions and two months of being Tsunade's personal slave, she wanted to strip him of his jounin rank too, but council didn't allow it" Kurenai finished with a grim look on her face. "Tsunade-sama wasn't very happy over the fact that he left you there at the gates and only took the Sasuke too the hospital, she threw a punch so hard that he flew through THREE walls. You should have seen how he looked when he got back up on his feet" Asuma said while he tried to contain his laughter. "And lets just say that he isn't very popular amongst the shinobi part of the village anymore, he's one of the most hated people in the village by now" Kurenai said in a serious voice.

At that point Naruto got confused, sure Kakashi had been a bad teacher and had abandoned him, but what on earth had he done to deserve that? "Why?" he simply asked the group in front of him. All he got back was shocked eyes that obviously didn't believe what their ears had just told them. "You got to be kidding me, are you serious?" Chouji said in a confused voice which seemed just as confused as his eyes. Again it was Neji who got back into teller-mode and said in his usual superior self, "after you left, the story about how he neglected you during training and how he had given Sasuke the honour for things that you had done, like defeating Gaara and beating Haku, slipped out into the public, after that people learned the truth behind the stories he wasn't mister popular anymore. That was one of the main reasons why many people stopped hating you; they couldn't believe that someone who had done so much good possibly could be evil and a monster". Naruto was deeply touched by this fact, people didn't hate him anymore, and they had finally found the light after being lost in the darkness for so long. Finally they had been able to let go of all that hatred that had been destroying them from the inside of their hearts for so long.

They all just sat there in the cool clearing enjoying each others presence until the sun went down and filled the forest and the sky with it's yellow and orange light. They where all lost in their own thoughts and didn't really notice how late it had gotten until a loud shrieking voice suddenly filled the forest and they could have sworn that they could hear them all the way to Suna. "NARA SHIKAMARU, YOU BETTER GET YOUR LAZY BUTT HOME RIGHT NOW, OR ELSE I'M TELLING TEMARI THAT YOU ARE STILL SLEEPING WITH YOUR TEDDY BEAR" yes...it was the dreaded mrs. Nara Shikaku --> Nara Yoshino, or as many knew her, Shikamarus mother.

Hidden snickers and bad attempts of hiding giggling and laughter was clearly heard through the training ground, in the end none of the people present where able to keep their laughter in any more and all of them fell to the ground in biggest laughter fits Konoha had seen in years, only the teachers managed to keep their laughter in check, barely. "You...sleep...with...a...teddy bear?" Kiba managed to get out through the laughter, barely managing to say anything at all. "NO" Shikamaru yelled with a face as red as Hinata's had been when she was around Naruto all those years ago, desperately trying to not look too guilty. "Well I guess it doesn't really matter anymore, since the entire village knows by now anyway" Naruto said after finally getting back into control, "but I don't get why she said it anyway, now she lost her bargaining chip" Naruto continued. Shikamaru just boringly into his eyes and said "that's exactly it, that troublesome woman has just embarrassed me in front of the entire village, but she didn't loose her bargaining chip. Since Temari is currently in Suna, she was the only one who DIDN'T hear it" in the end Shikamaru just looked down on the ground, fully aware of the fact that he had once again been deep and utterly defeated by his mother.

"well I guess I better start getting home now, before my mother starts telling the baby stories again" and with that Shikamaru got up and started walking home, that was the signal that everyone needed and they finally realised how late it had actually gotten. Before they left everyone got struck by the same thought, what about Naruto? Chouji had been the first to face him and ask him if he needed a place to sleep that night, the others didn't want to be any less, and soon Naruto had enough places to sleep to last him a lifetime, Sasuke had even offered him one of the buildings in the Uchiha compound. Naruto just turned down every offer he got, "I'm fine, really. I got a place to stay...really", they eventually believed him and left him standing there under the tree, but not before making sure he would be fine about twenty times.

When he was finally alone again he realised that Chigiri had left his normal spot on his shoulder, and was now sitting in one of the many thousand trees that surrounded the Konoha village. It was fast getting dark around him, and he decided that it was about time he went home himself. "_Home...home...I really like the sound of that"_ Naruto thought quietly to himself while a smile was tryimg to take over on his lips and his eyes shined while thinking of the wonderful word, home.

He felt exited and hopeful when he finally pulled out the scroll from his jacket again and released the letter from his father and finally un-sealed the blood seal from his fathers letter. It only took a second and the normal smoke that mysteriously always followed these things (a\n: any others that are wondering about that?) and he found himself in possession of a map and a big silver key that was made in a complicated yet beautiful pattern

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well, that was the seventh chapter, hope you liked it. The voting on marriage or not is still going on, but it's nearing an end.

Don't forget to review to me, it really helps :)


	8. Part 8

sorry for taking so incredible long time publishing this, i've been busy, I didn't know what to write. I knew what I wanted to write, it was all in my head, I just couldn't get it down on the paper, i'll try to be faster with the next one. thanl you for beeing understanding.

and also, I have decided to get another beta reader, so all of those who like this story and would like to help me out, send me a message ;) prefeably someone who is good at writing english.

I do not own naruto, only Chigiri, Chigiri is mine.

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The protective and illuminating light of the moon shone peacefully over the mighty forest that surrounded the village of Konoha, lulling every creature into sleep with its soothing light, animals and humans alike

The protective and illuminating light of the moon shone peacefully over the mighty forest that surrounded the village of Konoha, lulling every creature into sleep with its soothing light, animals and humans alike.

The world was in peace, none was fighting and none was suffering, under the guidance of mother moon all was well.

That is, everyone but one, a single person was still awake and at it.

Slowly, a single figure and his most faithful friend were making its way up the hidden, small and difficult dirt path that was running on the side of the hokage monument.

Not many knew of this path, and to find it, you had to know where it was.

"Stupid father, he just had to put his home on top of the highest spot in miles, and with the only way to get there being this tiny little side step" an angry and grumpy Uzumaki Naruto thought while he worked his way up the crumply path that was showing him the way to his new home.

Under the surveillance of the moon, he eventually made it to the top, only to get even more frustrated when he found out that the road that led to the gates of his family's estate had been overgrown with plants years ago, considering it had been left alone ever since the death of his family that fateful day that he was born and the kyuubi attacked.

After 20 minutes of cursing and cutting of plants later, he finally stood in front of his goal, one of the things that he had been searching for ever since he learned the meaning of it.

A home and a piece of history that was only his, the history of his own roots and family.

The old rusty gate that protected the once so graceful home still stood mighty and strong in front of him this night, as it had stood in front of his father all those years ago. There it stood in all its glory with its intriguing patterns and mighty steel, just waiting for someone to come and again fill the house with life and prosperity.

And it was with butterflies in his stomach that Naruto took out the big silver key from the scroll, and he noticed that the key seemed to have the same beautiful pattern as the gate in front of him; the only difference was that the key was made from silver, and the gate was made of steel. Although it had been years since the gate and the key had been together, they melted together like they where new when Naruto eventually gathered the courage too unlock his heritage, and the gate swung open in front of without the smallest creek.

The garden on the inside had the clear signs of once being heaven on earth, with fountains, flowers in thousands and even a few delicate statues. Even now while it had been left unattended for many years, it had kept some of its former glory and to this day still looked beautiful. "_WOW"_ was the only word coming to mind for Naruto in the moment he stepped through the gate, "_I can't wait for tomorrow, then I can go through every inch of this property in pure daylight_", and without much more hesitation, he started moving towards what he assumed was the main house on the property.

From what he could see in the darkness of the night, the house seemed to be built mainly from wood with a traditional design from the fire country, he also guessed that the wood used would be from their homeland as well. "_well ...since I can't really see anything of neither the structure nor the design, I suppose it isn't really any meaning in me standing in front of it with an admiring awh", _he shook his head a few times, both so that he could clear his mind and so that he could remove that ridiculously large grin that suddenly manifested itself on his face, had he only known that it would do him no good, as the garden only was the tip of the iceberg, and an enchanted world of things he never would have imagined laid in front of him, just waiting to be discovered.

"come on Chigiri, let's see if we can't find us an rusty old mattress to spend the night on", and as soon as his loyal friend was once again firmly placed on Naruto's shoulder, he took the first step onto the small staircase that would lead him to the front door, and the place that would forever be his home.

The front doors was made in a dark red type of wood with intricate carved patterns on it, it was a set of double doors with golden handles, and they seemed strong and very capable to hold against enemies on its very own. "_hmm, these patterns almost looks like seals"_ our hero thought to himself while he let one of his graceful fingers follow the intricate pattern that had been carved into the set of double doors, "_definitively something worth checking into tomorrow, it might be part of some sort of defence system". _He let his hand depart from the interesting act that had been committed onto the door, and rather went to see if the doors was open or not, and it was with a great deal of surprise that he discovered that the doors to one of the most guarded estates in all of Konoha, was open and not locked at all.

The door opened without a sound, despite the many years it had stood unused. And the room that waited on the inside was completely dark and inviting, like something on the inside was calling out to him, tempting him to walk inside, and discover the treasures that had been hidden from the world far too long.

The first thing he noticed as he entered what seems to be a small hallway, leading into complete darkness, was that it was hanging a pair of dark red velvet curtains not far from him and the door. Like they where marking the entrance to something, something that he did not know what was, but was eager to discover. As he was struggling to take of his sandals in a very naruto'ish way, he of course ended up in a tangles pile on the floor. After picking up what was left of his pride from the floor, finally getting of the sandals and cursing the darkness for falling in such an un-cool way, he finally sort of managed to get up from the surprisingly clean floor, using the wall as assistance, and it was while he was doing that, that he made a discovery that didn't exactly lighten his already darkened mood, not less than ten cm away from where he had struggled with the sandal from hell, what did he find? "A god damn LIGHT SWITCH!!" Naruto suddenly shouted out, and it was with a twitching eye that he grudgingly pressed it, and then there was light.

But both the sandal from hell and Satans light switch was forgotten as soon as he turned around and saw exactly what his parents had left for him so that he always could feel safe.

Right where the curtains where hanging, it was a step down from the small hallway and into the rest of the house. On one side of the small opening that served as hallway a glorious painting of an angel was hanging, greeting all those who entered with love, on the other side it was a series of places to hang coats and put shoes. But it was what was on the outside of the small area that was truly breathtaking. Straight ahead of him there was a huge staircase in a dark brown red'ish colour with black designs on it, as he walked towards it, he also noticed that he was walking on a long rug that had the same colour as the curtains and the rug was so long that it continued up the stairs and disappeared. As he stood in front of the giant stairs, he noticed that there were several doors around him in the same dark brown, almost redish, colour as the stairs; he counted five doors in total, two at his right side, one at his left side, and one door at each side of the stairs in the end of the room. The last two rooms had different doors though, while the three first doors looked light and friendly, these two looked masculine, strong and authoritative. Like they where protecting something of high value, and where built to keep unwanted people away. Chigiri brought him back from his trancelike state with a scream that clearly said: "it's time for bed, you won't be able to see anything in this dark anyway, and I'm tired" he also glared at him with big sulking eyes. "Alright alright, we can explore in the morning" Naruto said as he gave into the sulking eyes of his feathered companion, and it didn't exactly stop him that he felt pretty beat himself. "Come on, lets find us that springy mattress that we where dreaming of" and as simple as that, Chigiri took his regular seat on Naruto's shoulder as he started climbing up the steps. As he reached the top, he noticed something that made the very root of his heart turn in both sorrow and joy at the same time, hanging on the wall right in front of him, a huge picture with a golden frame was hanging. The picture contained two exhausted, but joyful people, a woman with hair as red as the sunset and a smile that could melt the ice, and a man with hair as golden as the burning sun with a smile so big it reached his ears, and a peaceful sleeping newborn baby boy with small strands of yellow hair, and under the picture it was hanging a gold sign that said: "Kushina, Minato and Naruto Namikaze, a family of heroes".


End file.
